


Woman Inherits The Earth

by plinys



Category: Agent Carter (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Jurassic Park, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-16
Updated: 2015-11-16
Packaged: 2018-05-02 00:22:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,992
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5226782
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/plinys/pseuds/plinys
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Peggy's latest assignment from the SSR involves her gathering information regarding the 'theme park' created by her old war buddy, Howard Stark. This connection makes an invitation to Jurassic Park easy to come by. On the island she is greeted by, Angie Martinelli, the park's poster girl, and Peggy's companion for her voyage around the park. However, as Peggy participates in a pre-opening tour, she quickly begins to realize that the SSR had ever reason to be worried. After all, dinosaurs were not meant to roam this earth.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Woman Inherits The Earth

**Author's Note:**

> So this is it my Marvel Big Bang fic finally being posted! (Woo! Yay!) First off big shout out of thanks to my lovely [beta](http://angiemahtinelli.tumblr.com/), who I owe so much for helping to edit this for me! And to my amazing artist ([CHECK OUT THIS ART](http://fannishcodex.tumblr.com/post/133361687399))! You are both amazing and deserve a whole round of kudos just for being awesome!
> 
> Now - - before I get into the fic, be warned. This takes place in a vague Captain America 1 happened, but Agent Carter didn't universe. And as far as the exact /time/ the fic is taking place, just imagine a vague 50s-60s sort of thing. I'm bad with time periods, okay, but I am good with dinosaurs and femslash, and if you're here for those things read on and try not to get stuck on the anachronistic elements.
> 
> Alrighty, enjoy!

“Modern marvels of the prehistoric world brought to life in this unbelievable park!”

Once, while she was drunk and in the middle of war-torn Europe, she had heard the proposal for such thing from the lips of a rather drunk Howard Stark. Howard had insisted that this could change the tide of the war.

 _“Soldiers are great, but imagine if we had Dinosaurs_ ,” He’d proclaimed, spreading his hands out around the bar as if imagining that the men around him had been transformed into Jurassic creatures. If she closed her eyes, she could still see him standing there before her, the way he had snapped his fingers just before saying, _“The war would be over like that.”_

Peggy had foolishly written the notion off as another one of Howard’s crazy ideas (not the first and not certainly the last) and then with Project Rebirth, and the end of the war, well – to be honest she had quite forgotten about that drunken conversation they’d had one lonely night during the war.

Certainly she had never considered that anything could come of it.

“Book your tickets now for the grand opening of Jurassic Park, and experience the best scientific breakthrough since modern plumbing!”

Projected onto the screen of the SSR office, the newsreel plays. She’s seen it before, once while waiting for a cinema show, but at the time she had written it off as nothing important, a farce or an obscure advert for a moving picture that would be coming soon.

She’d been wrong about that.

The gravity of the matter had become clear, when she had shown up to the SSR’s New York headquarters one day, and been confronted with a conference room full of sketched out maps, paleontology textbooks, and the aforementioned newsreel playing.

She squints at the screen with a sense of apprehension.

The woman – _the hostess of your Jurassic adventure_ , as she had proudly proclaimed herself at the beginning of the reel – smiled on the screen as though this was the greatest day of her life. The curls in her hair bouncing with every move she makes.

No doubt Howard was sleeping with her. She’s pretty enough and Peggy can easily see why he would pick her, some wannabe movie starlet as the public face of his park. He had a type and the woman on the screen matched it to a tee.

The image on the screen changes from the woman to a picture of the park now, or at least a model of it, the glimpse is brief, not enough for her to remember fully from just a glance, though she’s sure somebody’s already stopped the reel enough times to draw it out.

Then there’s imagines of dinosaurs, scale-covered monsters that look more like animatronics than reality.

“Those can’t possibly be real,” Peggy says quickly. “He’s one of the best engineers the states have, and clearly they’re mechanical inventions, that’s what they’re using at all the big theme parks these days, you know that.”

For that was the only explanation that could possibly make any sense.

No one reacts to her words, instead they all stare straight at the television waiting, until the woman reappears, to say,  “Jurassic Park! Opening this fall!”

And with that final goodbye, the Stark Industries logo taking up the screen for about five seconds, before it fully fades to black.

“We need you to go in and scope it out, Carter,” Chief Dooley says. “The local government is concerned these things could get loose, and the last thing we need are fucking dinosaurs running rampant. You knew Howard Stark back in war, yeah?”

He already knows the answer, she’s not sure why he bothers asking.

“We worked on Project Rebirth together,” Peggy says, ignoring the tone of condescension from the men in the room.

“How about you give him and ring and see if you can’t get some eyes on the inside for us.”

“Howard doesn’t trust the government,” she points out.

“Reason why I’m sending you in and not one of the boys,” Chief Dooley replies. “Say it’s off the record, just an old friend wanting to see the - what is it, again - _modern marvels of the prehistoric world._ ”

“Something like that.”

“Tell me you’ll do it?”

And because it’s her job, and her duty to the world’s society to stop lunatics before they went just a bit too far, she replies, “I’ll call him right now.”

\---

Howard predictably invites her, because if there’s one thing Howard Stark loves to do, it’s to show off.

She just had to appeal to that side of him, sound interested and just a bit disbelieving, and suddenly he was offering her tickets for the next flight out to his little island.

Peggy had almost hoped he would have turned her down. That way they could send someone else into this crazy mission.

He didn’t.

“You’re going to love it,” Howard insists, he’s sitting opposite her in the plane (for once not in the pilot’s seat), grinning like a fool. “I love it, so you’ll love it.”

He says it so simply, like that’s how these things work. Just because it happened once doesn’t mean it would happen so easily again.

“We’re coming up on the island from the left,” he tells her, cutting off the trail of thoughts, his hand gesturing towards the windows.

Even though she’s here on business, hoping she can convince her high ups that this old friend is not a mad scientist, it doesn’t mean that she isn’t _slightly_ curious about his park. Back when she had been a girl she had certainly tried to imagine what the dinosaurs might be like. There’d been small plastic toys, which her brother had handed down, and there’d been picture books – but reality was something else entirely.  

So she crowds over to the window, looking at the real life version of the map that took up one of the walls in the SSR’s New York office.

“I can’t see any of the dinosaurs from up here,” She says, moving to turn away from the window, only to be stopped as Howard insists, “Keep watching, pal, sometimes they’re hard to see at first.”

She keeps watching, fighting against her instinct to roll her eyes and Howard and wait out the rest of the ride in silence. A moment later, when the trees part to open an expansive field before them, she’s glad that she did.

From a distance they look like large boulders on the ground, but then one of them moves forward, and as the helicopter inches closer Peggy can slowly begin to make out the ridges along their spines.

“Howard, are they-”

Seeming to know her question, he speaks up, cutting her off, “Yeah, pal, that’s the real deal. Sixty-five thousand years in the making.”

Her eyes follow the creatures, dotting the surface of the island below her. It’s almost beautiful, like looking through a lense into the past. Her inner child cannot help but find the view an exciting one, but that doesn’t stop the worry in the back of her head.

\---

When land on the roof, there’s a man standing away from the plane ready to greet them in a fine-pressed suit. “Welcome back, Mr. Stark. How was your flight?”

“Could’ve been better,” he tells the man, before turning back to Peggy, “This is my assistant, Mr. Jarvis, if you need anything and can’t find me, just shout his name until he appears.”

Peggy quickly makes a mental note of him.

Chief Dooley will want to know exactly who Howard has here on the island with him, in case this project is deemed unsafe for the public. Hopefully the SSR would be able to appropriately compensate Howard’s employees, if they had to shut it down. While he may not personally need the compensation she was sure the others weren’t all so lucky.

Her gaze sweeps over Jarvis one last time, before offering a friendly hand to shake, “Peggy Carter, it’s a pleasure.”

“No, the pleasure's all mine.”

“Don’t bother flirting with him, pal. Jarvis is a taken man.”

“Happily for the past four years,” Mr. Jarvis agrees, “She’s actually the reason I have this job.”

“The Doctor’s one of the best paleobiologists in the world,” Howard insists, “Stole her right out of Hungary, I did. You’ll meet later, though for now...” He trails off in what is meant to be some sort of dramatic anticipation. Before there’s a grand show of Howard pushing the doors, to what must be the visitor’s center on the island, open for her.

Clearly no expense was spared on the Visitor Center, it proves to be a weird mix of New York City high life and tacky roadside amusement. The walls are an unattractive orange color lined with instructional displays, while the floors are a bright and shiny stone, such that she can see her reflection when she looks down at them. Though her eyes are not on the floor very long, for in her sweep of the room, she locks onto what must be the main attraction.

A welcoming banner hands from the ceiling, reading _Welcome to Jurassic Park_ , and directly below it sits the type of display she would find in a museum.

A full T-Rex skeleton, glistening white and threatening in the center of the floor.

“I can’t even find the words to describe this place,” she says after her sweep is over.

“I usually go with magnificent,” Howard says in a self-assured voice.

She barely restrains herself from letting out a light laugh at that.

“Though this must have cost you a small fortune,” Peggy says, stepping closer, under the shadow on the skeleton.

“The expense was worth it.”

Yes, she supposes he would certainly see it that way.

No expense would have been too small for his vision. While certainly Peggy wasn’t lacking in money after the war – Howard was better off than any of them had become, his work on Captain America as well as the Manhattan Project had lined his pockets for years to come - whereas her meager cut from the SSR’s pet project had nearly run its course.

“If you think this is something, wait till you see the live ones,” comes an unfamiliar voice, and at once Peggy turns away from the T-Rex.

“Who’s this? Another assistant?” she asks.

Howard had a habit of acquiring young men with potential. He’d done it back during the war, and it was foolish to think the end of the war would mean anything different. The kid before her couldn’t have been more than sixteen, but there was a certain look of familiarity in the way he parted his sandy blonde hair back from his head and the soft practice smile on his face.

“Alexander Pierce,” the boy says, sticking his hand out in an over eager greeting.

“I owed his father a favor,” Howard replies in a stage whisper that only Peggy is meant to hear, but instead carries nearly across the whole room. “I don’t know if you remember…”

Though she never gets to hear quite what it was she might not be remembering, for a second later Howard trails off, as the doors to the visitor center opens once more, and in steps a young woman.

“There you are, darling,” Howard all but coos.

For a second Peggy thinks she’s about to meet the aforementioned Doctor Jarvis, but then the woman turns, the light brown curls of her hair falling over her shoulder as she does so. She’s beautiful, with a small smile on her lips and a mint green dress. Her nose wrinkles slightly at the nickname, clearly showing more backbone than any of his previous girls. Though she still allows him to kiss her on the side of her head.

The longer Peggy looks at the girl, the more she realizes that Howard’s _darling_ looks quite familiar.

“This is, of course, the stunning Miss Angie Martinelli,” Howard goes right back to the introductions. “I’m sure you recognize her from the commercials, you have seen my commercials, haven’t you?”

“Yes, of course,” Peggy reassures him. “They’re on all the time.” _At the SSR Office, for analysis._ “Very well done and classy.”

His grins tells her that that was the right thing to say,

“I thought that having Angie here for the opening would be a good tie in. Give them all a familiar face to look forward to. Angie agreed, I’m not forcing her to be here. Darling, tell Peggy I’m not forcing you to be here, she’ll worry if you don’t.”

Angie laughs, it’s not a beautiful laugh by any means, but it is fun and instantly Peggy feels at ease. “He’s not forcing me to be here. Though he is paying me too much for any normal person to consider turning him down.”

“He has a habit of doing that,” Peggy agrees, “That’s the problem with this newly made rich men. They think anything can be fixed by throwing money at it. Though I’m sure you would know all about that?”

“Would I?”

“I assume in addition to this wonderful job, that you’re Howard’s latest girlfriend,” Peggy says.

“I’m a lesbian, actually,” Angie corrects, “Bit of a job requirement around here.”

All of a sudden this trip had gotten a whole hell of a lot more interesting.

“Smart.”

“I try.”

\---

Eventually after the introductions are made, Howard starts to lead her on the grand tour of his main facility. The whole group shuffling along with them. It will be easier with a group, this way Peggy could try to gauge their opinions of the park instead of just listening to Howard’s flattery of himself.

Though most the others don’t seem interested in speaking with her. Jarvis, follows a step behind Howard, as if waiting for his command before doing or saying anything. While Alexander, simply eyes Peggy warily. It’s his searching gaze that makes her feel slightly uneasy.

The sense of unease is probably why she’s caught so off guard, when the next room they enter triggers a prerecorded message to play in a vaguely familiar female voice. Though the only person who notices her reaction seems to be Angie Martinelli.

Angie gives her a small grin, “It’s for the park guests.”

“It’s nice,” Peggy insists, “I just wasn’t expecting to start hearing voices from the heavens.”

“It’s sort of weird hearing yourself speak,” Angie mutters, just for Peggy to hear. And she gets a slight laugh out of it, as the recorded voice overhead of her companion gives a brief history of the Jurassic Period, in an enthusiastic tone quite contrary to the expression on the face of the woman standing next to her, as Angie lipsyncs to her own recorded voice.

Not that she could listen too much of it, for Howard is talking over everything, explaining the project in the boastful way that is uniquely him.

“He doesn’t seem to mind.”

That gets a snort out of Angie.

And slowly, Peggy tunes back into whatever Howard was saying. “They’re my creations, my intellectual property really, I put in a request for a trademark, but the bureaucrats-”

“I’m not sure that’s how it works,” Peggy chimes in.

“What was that, pal?”

“A dog breeder doesn’t have intellectual property rights over the animals he breeds.”

“But this is different,” Howard insists.

“And how is that?”

He seems momentarily stumped, as though explaining his vision to her is something that is simply impossible.

“All of our dinosaurs are female,” a new voice chimes up, heavily accented with something that sounds like Hungarian, “We create the eggs using an incubator and artificial eggs bases, designed from tree frog models. There’s no breeding in our facility, it’s all creation.”

The woman who has appeared in front of Peggy wears a knowing smile. She has an abundance of auburn hair pulled back in a bun behind her head, which contrasts with the bright white of her lab coat.

“Doctor Jarvis, I was just talking about you.”

“Were you now?” the doctor replies, looking to Mr. Jarvis, who Peggy can only infer is her husband.

“He really wasn’t,” Mr. Jarvis insists. “He’s just saying that to earn your favor.”

“I mentioned you, before, in passing,” Howard insists, “Peggy, be a pal, and back me up.”

She doesn’t bother backing him up and instead says, “He’s very terrible at introductions, isn’t he?”

“Well, we don’t keep Mr. Stark around for his people skills,” she replies, “Now, please, call me Anna.”

“Anna,” Peggy replies, “I was wondering if you could tell me about how to _make_ these creatures.”

That gets an explanation out of the woman quickly enough. Much better than the tourist trap version Angie’s voice narrates for the visitors of the park, and far straighter than Howard’s bragging. Mentally Peggy catalogues everything read off to her, those waiting on her back at the SSR will need this sort of information to determine if the park is safe for normal visitors.

Though Peggy would be lying if she said she wasn’t actually interested in how they had done it. Before this all she had heard of the project was Howard’s drunk hypotheticals.

But now…

“So, the park’s ready to go, then?” Peggy asks, when Anna’s explanation has finished.

“We’re all ready to open in a few weeks, I was intending to do a practice run beforehand, bring in some friends or relatives,” Howard says the last word with a grimace, and Peggy vaguely recalls that Howard and his brother weren’t on the best of terms. “Somebody with kids that will _ohh_ and _ahh_ at the right times… You’ve got a niece, don’t you?”

“Sharon’s not interested in dinosaurs last I checked,” Peggy says quickly. Because it’s better than explaining that given what she’s seen so far there was absolutely no way she was bringing her niece to this park.

“Someone else then… Gabe’s got a daughter, at least, I think he does. I should call him up,” he muses, trailing off as he turns back to one of the electronic park maps. “Not that it matters – I could give you all the full show right now, if you wanted?”

“Sir, I don’t really think --” Mr. Jarvis starts.

But Peggy speaks up quicker to stop him, because this is why she’s here, to see the facility and report back that everything’s fine (or not), and the only way she would be able to get that report was if she actually saw the cages. “Nothing would make me happier, Howard.”

\---

She’s about ready to eat her words, the second Howard brings them to an exhibit just outside the laboratory.

“Prepare to be amazed, pal.”

“Oh, I am just dying of anticipation,” Peggy replies in a droll voice. The scene before them appears to be nothing more than a large fenced in area, plants spread out before their eyes, but as far as the dinosaurs go, she’s yet to see anything.

That is until Howard presses some switches on the control panel, and out from a metal tube comes a small chicken. For a second the bird moves about, doing nothing noteworthy, but it’s not the bird she means to be watching. It’s the creature that comes darting out from the plants, as quick as a bullet to rip the animal apart with its jaw. Another one comes a second later, fighting with its sibling for the scraps of the chicken, blood dripping from their teeth as they snarl at each other.

“Velociraptors,” Howard supplies.

Though his one word is all it takes for the dinosaurs to turn their attention away from their food and latch their gazes onto the humans just outside their fence. One of them lets out an unholy screeching sound before tossing itself at the electric fence that separates the dinosaurs from their human observers.

“Now, these aren’t ready for the public just yet,” Howard explains. “Still a bit, ah, what’s the word…?”

“Lethal,” Mr. Jarvis supplies in a dry, bored tone.

In fact, all of her companions seem almost bored by the sight before them.

Alexander even going so far as to check his watch, as though seeing these ferocious creatures was simply a waste of time that the young intern could be spent doing other things. While Angie has her compact mirror out and is giving her curls a once over.

They have of course seen all of this before, what is horrific for her is _normal_ for them.

People, it seemed, could become bored of even dinosaurs.

“These are what I wanted to make for the war,” he explains. “Could have changed everything, but they’re damned hard to control. I’m working on it though, just in case.”

Her eyes follow the creatures as they continue to toss themselves at the electric fence again and again. There’s fury in those so near-to-lifelike eyes.

“Could work with the commies too,” he muses, “Forget putting a man on the moon, and that whole space race bullshit, we unleash these things on them and then-” He snaps his fingers, causing a reaction from the dinosaurs. There’s a noise as another one of them snaps it’s far too large jaw, hungry eyes seeming to latch onto the humans observing them. “They’re done for.”

Peggy tears her eyes away from that seemingly intelligent gaze, to fix a worried gaze in Howard’s direction. Was that really the point of this project of his then, not some amusement for the idle rich, but rather a militant operation?

Surely, a number of people on the SSR’s watch list would be interested in acquiring something of this nature. Creatures strong enough to tear a man limb from limb, if only their power could be harnessed and their movement controlled by men with the heaviest pockets.

The very idea of it frightened her more than the creature’s gaping bloodied jaws ever could.

She shivers slightly at the thought.

“Originally they’re meant to be smaller, about the size of a dog, but I thought we’d want to wow the kids.”

“Oh Howard, you really shouldn’t have.”

\---

“Show me the rest of the park,” she says, though her tone is no longer as light and cheery as it had been when she’d seen the dinosaurs from the airplane. The creatures that had seemed like something out of a wonderful fantasy and quite clearly proved to be the exact opposite of them.

Weapons capabilities, that would be what the SSR would expect to hear from her.

Not knowing which ones were the most violent as to protect people, but rather as a contingency plan should a war ever come up again. She could see it all too clearly now. Super soldiers were one things, but dinosaurs.

They were – or had been – extinct for a reason.

She eyes the jeeps that they would be riding in, with the same sense of apprehension that she had looked at the electric fence holding the velociraptors back.

“I’m riding with English,” Angie says, lacing her arm through Peggy’s. “You boys take the other one.”

A part of Peggy is reluctant to go with her. She wants the first hand detailed experience, the information that she will undoubtedly need to report back, but another part of her is beginning to enjoy Angie’s company and can enjoy a break from Howard’s. She had forgotten how tiring it was to be around him.

“There’s an intercom system between the jeeps,” Angie continues, “If you need to share any _necessary details_ , I’m sure you can just call over. Otherwise it will give me a chance to practice my _hostess_ skills.”

That seems to sell Howard on it.

He gives them a grin that she hardly likes the implications of saying, _you girls play nice_ before heading to his own van.

“Should I drive or would you prefer to…?” Peggy starts, holding the keys between them.

Angie just grabs the keys from her hand, before heading to the driver’s seat. “Technically they run on their own as long as we stay on the track, but the view from the front is always the best.”

Peggy slides into the passenger seat next to Angie, and watches as true to her point the other woman’s feet never touch the pedals, instead she simply puts the key in and lets the Jeep begin on its trek. Clearly Howard’s creations had involved from his ever failing flying cars to cars that could drive themselves. Though she still was hesitant to have too much faith in the current design.

A small chime fills the cabin of their vehicle, and Howard’s voice carries over the walkie-talkie line, “You might want to look up, we’re about to go in the gate.”

Peggy does as instructed, looking out the front window of the jeep as they reach a wide gate. The doors of solid stone stand shut between them like the rest of the park, while the name of the park is written about the doors. She watches, as the doors open up before them, the wide stone parting to reveal a colorful myriad of plant life on the inside.

“Welcome to Jurassic Park,” Angie says in a soft hushed tone, as their jeep pulls into the park, before the walls shut slowly behind them.

Just as her voice had come over the speakers in the visitor center, it comes up now again as they pass beyond the gates into the park.

"Welcome to Jurassic Park,” a voice says, an echo of the same words spoken to Peggy not a minute before. “A once-in-a-lifetime experience is about to unfold before your eyes, as we take you back in time to a long lost -"

"Do you mind if I turn that off?" the real Angie asks.

At Peggy's nod, she leans forward to mash at the control panel in the front of the van until the recording cuts off.

There's a long moment of silence between them following that, and Peggy drags her eyes look outside the window in order to distract from the lack of conversation.

Angie seems to misinterpret her gaze.

"I wanted to be an actress," she confesses, "I was doing this little shows, small parts mostly up in New York. When I heard about this gig, just doing some recordings for commercials thought it would be easy money."

"If you want off the island you say the word and I can-"

Angie waves her off. "That's awful nice of you, English. But I think I like it here, for now that is, the whole thing is sort of exciting."

" _Exciting_ isn't the word I would use." Peggy grumbles.

Though Angie's light laugh a moment later makes it hard for her to stay mad. "The Velociraptors aren't pleasant I'll give you that, but the rest of the park... When I first got here I thought I was in a dream."

"The illusion wore off?"

"Something like that." Angie shrugs. "I just get this weird sense sometimes that something ain't right. Tried talking to the guys about it, but of course none of them feel the same.”

“Boys and their toys.”

“Exactly.”

Peggy knew that feeling.

It was one that she had been feeling since stepping off the helicopter onto the island. There was something going on here, more than just Howard's playing at being a mad scientist. Peggy just needed to figure out what that was before someone got hurt.

"Hey, English!"

"Yes?"

"Stop thinking so hard and look out the window!"

"I'm not -" Peggy starts only to stop as she does finally turn back to the window. Seeing them from the helicopter was nothing compared to seeing the dinosaurs in person. "Stop the car."

There's a sudden jerky motion as Angie pulls out the emergency stop, but Peggy can't find it in herself to care as she hops out of the Jeep.

These were what she had seen from the sky, the creatures that had made her almost believe for a second that this project wasn’t a nightmare come to life. They stand tall in front of her, but still carefully watching the group of them.

Peggy watches them in return.

“They’re nice, the Brachiosaurus is an herbivore, so there’s no chance of getting eaten alive, just try not to get trampled,” Angie calls out after her, supportively. And that’s all it takes for Peggy to move forward, extending her hand out in front of her as though she were greeting a friend’s dog.

The dinosaur responds in kind, slowly lowering her head so that her fingers can brush against the scaly skin of the jurassic creature.

It’s Howard’s booming laughter that finally gets her to pull her hand away from the dinosaur and turn back to the group that she had abandoned seconds before. There’s a look of amusement on both his and Angie’s faces, while Mr. Jarvis seems to be slightly worried, and Alexander has an expression that Peggy can’t quite place her finger on.

Had she been a shyer woman she might have flushed under the gaze of the group, instead she just tilts her head up proudly, remarking, “I must admit, you’d done something incredible here.”

“Knew you’d fall in love with the place,” he replies, “Just took a bit of time that’s all.”

“Yes, that’s it,” though her own voice is wary, and the wonder she had at seeing the giant herbivores fades when she remembers his more violent creations. The Brachiosaurus was one thing, the rest of the park was quite clearly another.

As if her own thoughts could lead to something worse, Howard gets that weirdly proud look on his face and says, “Now, why don’t I show you something even more exciting?”

“Why do I have a bad feeling about the word _exciting_?”

“Because you clearly know the boss,” Angie offers in a teasing reply.

“The lack of faith in me from the general crowd is appalling,” Howard insists, “When have I ever let you ladies down before?”

This time it’s Peggy’s turn to laugh. “Would you like me to write down a list?”

\---

The next time the vans pull to a stop, she doesn’t even have to ask what the large electric fence before them is supposed to be for. There’s only one creature that would need such a level of security to keep it inside and away from the public. Only one creature she could imagine being tall enough that electric fences build up like skyscrapers would be necessary.

“Don’t tell me you’ve actually...” she starts to say as she steps out of the vehicle to join Howard and his two assistants.

“Cloned a Tyrannosaurs Rex,” Alexander finishes for her in a smug assured tone. “Mr. Stark is incredible, isn’t he? The best in the field.”

Peggy purses her lips.  “Not exactly the words I would have used.”

She steps closer up to the fence, making sure to stay a step away as not to trigger the electricity.

Curiously she notes that she does not hear the same electric snapping that she had with the velociraptors’ enclosure, perhaps out here in the park a method had been perfected as to be less distracting for the guests.Though she found it hard to imagine many guests would be allowed to leave the jeeps as liberally as she was being allowed to.

Still, if even one was allowed to slip out, something grave could easily happen. She would have to ask him about that later, locking mechanisms, and extra precautions.

“I named it Steve.” Howard says, interrupting her thoughts.

She turns towards him at that, “I thought you said all the dinosaurs were female.”

“Oh they are – I just thought, since I couldn’t name the park after him,” Howard starts, then trails off again, his eyes darting around the enclosure almost anxiously.“Where is that damn thing, anyway?”

Something’s not right.

It’s a silly feeling to have, one that seems to be the biggest understatement in the world, seeing as she’s standing in the center of a park that is either a disaster waiting to happen to the military’s next pet project. But a chill rolls up her spine, as she stares into the empty paddock before her, and Peggy just seems to know at once that something is wrong.

“Get her to come out, won’t you,” Howard orders Alexander, his impatience made clear in his sharp tone.

There’s a quick, “Yes, sir” before Alexander is fiddling with the control panel just as Howard had done with the velociraptor. But this time, as she stares at the metal tubing leading into the exhibit, the door on the end doesn’t open.

“Pierce, I swear to you-”

“I’m working on it,” he replies, just as sharply. “It keeps saying system error. I don’t understand, we just updated everything, this shouldn’t be happening.”

There’s a groan from her left, and Howard’s off, ranting and raving as he shoves Alexander out of the way to get a better look at the panel. She would have expected that somebody in Alexander’s position might have looked concerned or even angry, but the expression on his face was one of almost satisfaction. As though there was a secret he knew that she did not.

“Howard, is everything alright?” Peggy asks.

“Just a small delay.”

“A _delay_.” Her voice sounds frantic to even her own ears.

He nods, turns away from the display, and shuts the control box with a particularly strong _thunk_.

“All major theme parks have delays,” Howard says after a moment, “Rumor has it Disney had the same trouble last year, all the rides going on the fritz – but we’ll be better, in a few years they’ll say _Disney who_?”

“Oh yes,” Angie says dramatically, her voice carrying all the way over from where she’s perched on the roof of their jeep. “But when those rides broke down no one was at risk of being _eaten_ by animatronics.”

“You don’t think it’s loose, do you?” Peggy asks.

“You got any other explanation, English?”

\---

She should have known that their small problem was not simply that small.

The T-Rex had yet to appear, but that did not stop the group from getting more frenzied by the second. Mr. Jarvis and Howard were engaged in a heated whispered conversation that nobody else seems to be allowed to be part of, before Howard turns away an unhappy frown on her face.

“How about I go and take one of the Jeeps back to HQ,” Alexander offers. “I’ll try and get the electric grid back on. Then everything will be back to normal, no reason to stop the tour.”

“We should all head back,” Angie butts in, “It will be safer back there. We’ve got this bunker in case of emergencies, remember.”

“This isn’t an _emergency_ ,” Howard argues. “This is a _minor_ set back.”

Peggy barely resists the urge to roll her eyes. “Your electric fence is turned off and there’s a good chance, a _T-Rex_ might be on the loose. What part of that do you think qualifies as a _minor set back_?”

He looks angrily at her. “The part where I know I can fix this.”

“ _Can_ you now? Really?” The sarcasm in her tone is stinging. “Because somehow I very much doubt that you have any part of this park under control.”

Though Howard seems fit to ignore her animosity. Incredibly mature of him.

“Alexander, you go on ahead and take the Jeep back. Use the walkie-talkies to let me know when the part of the park is back in business,” Howard says with a sense of finality, and just like that his intern is off, taking the keys for Peggy and Angie’s Jeep right out of Angie’s hands.

Before Peggy can raise her voice to even object properly, Alexander is speeding off, leaving the four of them remaining in the middle of the park, with no concrete answers and a very real possibility of danger set out before them.

“We should continue the tour,” Howard says, when the other jeep is no longer able to be seen. “No reason not to see the other exhibits. We’ll head up to the atrium and-”

“Please tell me you’re joking?” Peggy butts in before he can continue this insanity.

“Why would I be?”

She had nearly forgotten how taxing being around him was.

Rather than answering right away she brings a hand up to rub at her temples, in hopes of her frustration with hopeless idiots somewhat going away. It doesn’t do the trick nearly as well as she had hoped. But Angie’s similarly unhappy expression at least serves to let her know that she’s not the only sane person on this god forsaken island.

“Wouldn’t you rather go back and take a look about the computers yourself? This is your park, your area of expertise, if anybody should be putting things back in order, shouldn’t it be you?” Peggy says, appealing to a different course of reason, but even that gets her a shake of the head in reply.

“I trust the kid.”

He may have, but Peggy certainly didn’t.

She had a feeling Angie didn’t either.

“I want to go back,” Angie says, her voice adopting a whine that Peggy hardly believes is real. “Please, can’t we just go back, for me?”

Though her words have nearly the same effect as Peggy’s attempts at reasoning with their guide. Which is to say, absolutely nothing.

“I don’t think you realize the severity of the situation, Howard.”

“I know what I’m doing,” he insists, “But if you ladies would like to head back, be my guest, there’s a maintenance building down that path, that’ll have a van you can head back in. This one goes forward.”

Splitting up the group doesn’t seem like a good idea. But there is no way Peggy is going to continue forward with this, not when doing so will very likely end in her death. If Howard refused to see reason, then she would just have to leave him behind.

“Mr. Jarvis, would you like to join us?”

“I’m afraid someone needs to look after him,” Mr. Jarvis says, reluctantly. “I wish you ladies the best of luck on your trip back.”

Peggy gives him a small nod. “Try to stop him from walking into the mouth of the monster, will you.”

“I’ll do my best, ma’am.”

\---

They make it about ten feet away from where they had departed from the boys, when the first snafu occurs.

Not dinosaurs attacking exactly, more like Angie’s heel getting wedged down between the roots of some plant, and a few moments of hopping around on stocking feet before she gives up on the whole affair.

“You might want to take your heels off, English.” Angie says. As she moves to pull her other shoe, the sudden lack of heeled shoes makes her shorter than Peggy, a sensation which is altogether quite pleasing. “These things aren’t going to care if we look cute. Figure we taste the same either way, is how I see it.”

“I’ve killed men wearing these,” Peggy replies, digging the toe of her shoe into the dirt pointedly, “Dinosaurs aren’t much different.”

“They’re bigger?”

“I have a gun in my heel.”

That gives Angie a second of pause, “Why do I suddenly feel like old war buddy of the boss is _actually_ code for mysterious assassin?”

“Technically, you’d call me a secret agent.”

“Personally, I’d call you gorgeous.” Angie replies, before she brings her hands up to cover her mouth, as though the words had accidentally slipped out. “Sorry,” she says from behind her hands, “I didn’t mean…”

“I don’t mind,” Peggy says quickly.

“Right, but I thought you and the boss were-”

“Oh, God, no,” Peggy cuts her off, “I would rather be dead than sleeping with Howard Stark.”

“You know, English, I wouldn’t joke about that one,” Angie says in a teasing tone of her own, “With a T-Rex on the loose dying out here is a very real possibility.”

“Don’t worry, I’ve faced Nazis, dinosaurs have nothing on them.”

That gets a grin from Angie. “Promise you’ll protect me then, if worst comes to worst?”

“On my honor.”

“I’m counting on you, English.”

“I won’t let you down.”

“No, I don’t think you will.”

\---

“Steve,” Peggy says, voice angry from ranting and raving. “The worst part is he names it _Steve_ like that’s some sort of honor.”

Angie who is driving the maintenance Jeep – since unlike the tourist Jeeps these ones don’t go on their own – shoots her a glance out of the corner of her eyes that is more mirth than understanding. “I though the T-Rex was named after Captain America.”

“Yes, he did. And that’s really what this whole thing is, isn’t it? Just some way to relive the _glory days_ of the war. Now we’re fighting our battles with espionage and scientific advances, but of course Howard has to push the envelope just a bit further. Once this gets out, we’ll about have won that science bit. There’s a man going to the moon, but dinosaurs now that-” Her sentence remains unfinished, as their jeep jerks to a sudden stop. “What was that?”

Angie doesn’t say anything in response.

So, Peggy turns her head in the other woman’s direction, only to freeze, as her latch onto the creature standing in front of their jeep. The skeleton inside the visitor center was nothing compared to the creature standing before them.

The mid-afternoon sun is reflecting off the dark lines of its skin, the wide jaw opening and closing before them.

This is it.

This is where she will die, trapped on an island in the middle of the ocean, with prehistoric monsters tearing her apart.

She had always supposed that when she finally met her end it would be through work, a mission gone wrong, a shot that was just too close to be stitched up properly, bleeding out in some foreign country where nobody knew her name. She just had never managed to factor _dinosaurs_ into the equation when imaging how her life would finally meet its tragic ending.

“Don’t get out of the Jeep,” Angie says, her voice a low whisper.

“We need to get out of here, otherwise we’re dinosaur food.”

“Tyrannosaurus Rexes are practically blind, they rely on their sense of smell and hearing – trust me I did the informational voice recording,” Angie insists. “As long as we don’t make any sudden movements, there’s a small chance it might not be able to distinguish us from the rocks around us.”

“I’m not sure we-”

“Peggy, trust me, this might be the only chance we have.”

The desperation in Angie’s voice is what gets Peggy to trust her.

Instead of getting out of the car, or even grabbing her firearm in attempt to run it off with gunfire, she tries to stay perfectly still watching as the T-Rex seems to stiff the air around her.

But Peggy’s heart beats rapidly in her chest, and her fingers itch for her gun, twitching in her lap. Until Angie finally reaches over, lacing their fingers together and giving Peggy a comforting squeeze, reminding her at once that she isn’t alone here.

She promised to protect Angie, and yet, it was Angie saving her.

The other woman’s presence is grounding Peggy, when the very ground beneath her feet seems ready to fall away in an instant.

It feels like an eternity before the T-Rex moves, slowly, but walking past their Jeep as though nothing was there. She doesn’t let out a breath until she can no longer see it in the rearview mirror. And even when she does, the breath shakes out from her lungs painfully.

“Oh God that was-” Angie starts, to say then, stops, her fingers squeezing against Peggy’s once more.

Peggy understands exactly what she means, the feeling all too real.

This time it is Peggy who squeezes back in a comforting reply.

“Are you going to be alright to drive?”

“Yeah, I think so,” Angie says, though when she withdraws her hand from Peggy’s, Peggy can see the way her fingertips quiver ever so slightly. “Better than sitting here waiting for it to come back. and figure out what we really are.”

She did have a point there.

“Don’t push yourself.”

“Honestly, English, we don’t really have a choice do we?”

“No, I suppose not.”

\---

The Jeep pulls to a halt outside the front gates of Jurassic Park. The gates are wide open, easy enough for the jeep to drive through, but not doubt large enough for anything else to have escaped out of the carefully built park.

“Please tell me I’m not the only one getting the heebie jeebies over here.”

Peggy shakes her head, “You’re not alone, Angie.”

“Oh goodie just what I was hoping to hear.”

The long walk back to the visitor center seems to leave her shivering in anticipation, but it’s not until they pull the front doors open that she realizes, why she had felt this way. Inside is a wreck, the chairs set up for visitors knocked over, the probably priceless T-Rex bones, fallen out of their places, while the welcome banner hangs limply down from the wall.

It looks like a war zone.

A place far too familiar to Peggy for her liking.

“We need to get to the bunker,” Angie says, her voice tight with urgency.

“Yes, I believe that would be the best course of action,” Peggy agrees, “I’ll try to radio my team for assistance while we walk.”

Angie’s “thank you” is soft in reply. As she leads the way through the facility with a sense of determination that Peggy can easily admire. She’s hit by the realization that Angie could make a good spy when all of this was said and done, perhaps Peggy could pull some strings when she returned to New York. She would certainly enjoy working with Angie again.

That is _if_ she made it off this island alive.

Peggy pulls the small SSR communication device out of her pocket, pressing the combination – two long pulses, and one short one – for distress into the device. Though the expected reply doesn’t seem to come. She repeats in three more times with the same dismal result.

“We just need to head down these stairs here and-“ Angie says, stopping as a blood curling scream fills the air, from somewhere behind them and in the direction of the labs, “Oh god.”

“Angie, the quicker you lead us to that bunker, the better chance we have at making it off this island alive.”

“Right, I know I just,” she shakes her head. “I just wish there was something we could do for the others.”

Peggy can tell her eyes are watering slightly, but there’s nothing they can do at this point to help the person who had screamed.

It was save themselves, or die, at this point. As hard as that was to admit.

“So do I,” she admits, the words a struggle to get out. “I’ve lost soldiers before, but innocent people don’t deserve this.” _Nobody deserved this_.

Angie nods her head in agreement. “If your guys pick up, though, they’ll be able to come in here and help, right? Get everyone to safety.”

Peggy could only hope, but the reality would not be so pretty.

If she was able to get in contact with them, her first goal would be to get herself (and Angie off of the island), maybe the guys if she could get back in contact with them. After that, it would likely be a good deal of time before they could get a clean up crew in here, to assess what was left. If there were remains left, the SSR would make sure they were given proper burials, but that was the most she could guarantee.

The likelihood of somebody surviving that long with a T-Rex and who knows what else on the loose, felt unlikely.

Even so, she couldn’t manage to say those words to Angie.

So she lies, as she has many times before. “Of course. That’s what we do at the SSR, save the day, protect the innocent.”

“A bit like Captain America then.”

“I suppose so.”

\---

“We’ll be safe here,” Angie insists as she swings the door shut to the bunker behind her, pressing the buttons to lock them into the small room. There’s basic supplies around them, enough to last the next few days between the two of them, but beyond that… Well, Peggy just hopes that it doesn’t have to come to that.

She fidgets with her SSR communication device again, trying to send out the distress signal, but her pings are left unanswered. Either the SSR team is too far away to be radioed or nobody is listening for her signals – neither case is particularly pleasant.

“Perhaps they’re out for lunch,” Angie says, her voice snappy and unhappy. “Or we’re out of range, or there’s a fucking _technical_ error, or-”

“I’ll get ahold of someone and get us off this island, I promise,” Peggy insists.

It’s the second promise she’s made that day, and she’s not certain that she can keep either of them at this moment. She hasn’t felt such a feeling of helplessness, since she had Steve over the radio just before he crashed the Hydra plane into the arctic.

It’s an unpleasant feeling to say the least.

The familiarity leaving her more upset than she would like to have been in such a tense situation.

“Angie.” Peggy calls out, attempting to stop the other woman’s anxious pacing around the room for a second. Peggy it seems is not the only person on edge.

“Yeah, English?”

“I’m slightly worried that there’s a chance Howard’s monsters might actually kill us,” Peggy says, her eyes locked on the door as if those very words leaving her lips could be enough to cause one of the raptors to break into their safe room. Reinforced concrete and electric locks seem to pale in comparison to the T-Rex that she had seen standing before them moments before. “And there’s something I would like to do, before that happens.”

“And what’s that?” Angie says, coming to rest final in front of Peggy.

She’s standing in front of Peggy now, their eyes locked on each other. This is the moment that Peggy will remember forever – staring at the woman she’d met not twenty-four hours earlier, but now feels as though she knew her all her life. The curls that Angie had proudly worn when their first met had long since fallen flat, a leaf stuck in part of her hair from the tree incident, and there’s a cut right above her left eyebrow that Peggy focuses on.

It’s certainly easier than focusing on those searching pair of eyes.

“Peggy, you alright there?”

“Yes, of course,” Peggy replies, suddenly finding her proper footing, and leaning across the space between them.

Her hand curls around the back of Angie’s neck and pulls them closer together. There’s a taste like iron on the lips that she is kissing, but Peggy can’t find it in her to mind, not once Angie starts kissing back in turn. Desperately grabbing onto her, as if fearing that Peggy might leave.

She certainly has no intention of leaving Angie any time soon.

Not ever, if she has a proper say about it.

Though a breath of air is necessary soon enough. Her heart pounding louder in her chest than it had during their encounter with the rouge T-Rex.

For a while, neither of them say anything, just catching their breaths, but then, Angie gets a silly little grin on her face and speaks up. “You do this with all your spy gals, Agent Carter?”

“Oh hush.” Peggy replies, before picking up back where they had left off.

Angie doesn’t seem to mind at all.

\---

The walkie-talkie that Peggy had nearly forgotten about comes to life on the ground beside them, there’s a crackling noise over the system, before a voice she thought she would never be thankful to hear carries across the line.

“You girls still alive? Over.”

Hearing it causes a terrible little laugh to bubble up from her chest. A laugh that Angie echoes a moment later.

 _Alive,_ she had never felt more alive than she had moments before.

“Yes, Howard. No thanks to you though,” Peggy replies back. “Over.”

The silence between her words and his next answer seems to go on forever, but finally the walkie-talkie speaks again.

“Where are you two? Over.”

Peggy looks to Angie for the answer, “Control room bunker of the main building,” she says handing it back to Peggy.

Who supplies the obligatory, “Over.”

“Right well, any chance you ladies could make it to the roof? I’d like to get off the damn island and I have a feeling you two would too. Over.”

The warm feeling in her chest that had started to grow when she had kissed Angie before, seems even larger now, and she swings her arms around the other woman’s shoulder instinctively, pressing another kiss to her lips, the smile wide on her face when she pulls back. An expression that is mirrored by Angie’s face.

“Nothing would make us happier.”

Just before Angie presses their lips together one more time, she whispers the word. “Over.”

\---

For all her fears, and all the dangers of _dinosaurs_ being on the roof, nothing appears out of thin air to stop them on their way to the roof.

Something Angie jokes must have to do with the fact that dinosaurs can’t open doors. Honestly, Peggy’s just counting it as a small blessing compared to the rest of the day that they’ve been through.

A small blessing compared to the no doubt countless amounts of bad news that Howard insists he’ll tell her about later, before shuffling the two of them onto the very same helicopter that she and Howard had come in on that morning.

Their pilot is notably absent, this time around.

As are many other people she had expected to see on their one way trip off the island.

“Where’s Alexander?” Angie asks, one of the many questions that had been on Peggy’s own mind.

Howard just grimaces. “He went back to reset the system, remember, pal? Looks got the electric fence back online, but I haven’t heard from him since we all parted ways at the T-Rex paddock.”

“Shouldn’t we wait for him?”

“At this point, he’s more likely dead than alive,” Howard admits. “Best plan is to get off the island before we join the fallen ones don’t you think?”

Peggy, of course, agreed with that. Though Angie still looked upset, with a frown on her lips that Peggy wanted to kiss off.

“We’re ready to fly whenever you are, sir,” comes the voice of Mr. Jarvis, and with that Howard turns away from them.

There was no more to say on the topic after that. The facts are plain enough before them.

“Why don’t we see if the helicopter has shock blankets,” Peggy says, quickly needing to busy herself with something else to distract from the very real possibility that they were the only survivors of the island.

There had been so many more people on the island, those running the facility, preparing everything. She would insist that the SSR send in a team later, see if there was anybody left to be saved, but she highly doubted it.

With that many of the creatures on the loose there was no use hoping.

She could still hear the echo of the woman’s scream that they had heard just before finding safety in the bunker.

“Peggy-“

“Later, we’ll talk later,” Peggy reassures Angie, as their ride lurches up from the ground.

Angie just nods once, and curls herself tighter in the protection of her shock blanket.

Peggy’s eyes go to the windows, just as they had on her arrival. But the park that had looked picturesque and exotic before, now appears to her as nothing short of horrific. The sight of it making her stomach turn.

Instead of settling into the seat beside Angie, she steps forward towards the front of the helicopter, taking the seat next to the pilot as though that could ease her suffering.

If Howard notices her presence, he doesn’t say anything. Which means it’s up to Peggy to break the uncomfortable silence between them.

“Howard-” she starts, unsure of how she’s going to finish that sentence. Thankfully she doesn’t need to, because he takes his name as a prompting to speak up on his own.

“This wasn’t supposed to happen, everything was perfect. The science is flawless, I designed these layouts myself, I don’t understand what could have gone wrong. How it all went wrong so quickly…”

“No, of course you don’t,” Peggy says, voice low and angry, “You were so preoccupied with seeing what you could do, that you never stopped to think if you should.”

He looks as if he’s been slapped, rightly so, for Peggy had been just moments before bringing her hand up and doing it herself. Nevertheless, the dejected look is not one that suits Howard.

“Howard, you understand I’ll have to report this to the SSR when I return to New York.”

“That’d been the plan all along, hadn’t it?”

She doesn’t answer his question, there really wasn’t anything to say.

Of course, he had always known. Perhaps coming under the ruse had been a mistake, if they had been honest with each other from the beginning, could all this have been avoided? She wasn’t sure.

Instead of dwelling on that any longer, she steps out of the cockpit, to take in the remains of their crew.

Just Angie and Mr. Jarvis.

“What happens now?” Angie asks, her shock blanket wrapped around her shoulders tightly.

“We go home?”

“I broke the lease on my apartment, figured I’d be at the park doing publicity for a while, but now…”

“You could always stay at my place?” Peggy offers. “Until you find somewhere else, it’s not much, but there’s a bed that’s large enough for two.”

Angie weakly smiles at that. “As long as you promise that there will be no more no more _don’t die_ kissing.”

“Oh but, darling, those are the very best kind of kisses.”

\---

It's ten years before she hears the words _Jurassic Park_ again.

(Even then it feels far too soon.)

It has been long enough that she’s nearly been able to forget the horrors she’s experienced. Her memories of that island nothing more than a file on the shelf in the SSR offices and the odd nightmare that has her curling closer to her bed companion as they both remind each other that they’re not on the island anymore, that they’re alive and together.

But even bad dreams have a way of reappearing in the worst ways imaginable.

It’s an early spring morning when her world goes wrong again.

There’s be a cup shattering, hitting the ground and Angie’s soft cursing, that causes Peggy to rise from her bed, despite the jetlag she feels from her latest mission. Stumbling down the stairs to their living room, she takes in the sight of Angie on the floor, doing the best to mop up her spilt tea.

Though for all that she cares for the other woman, Peggy cannot even bring herself to rush forward and help her, for a second after entering the room Peggy’s eyes lock onto the television screen and she freezes in place. Her heart beats in her chest in a panicked rhythm, for standing front and center is a man who looks instinctively familiar, he’s younger now, and more alive than Peggy would have expected.

“Jurassic World,” the ghost of Alexander Pierce says, “An ancient marvel brought to new life, sixty-five thousand years in the making.  Buy your tickets now, for this once in a lifetime opportunity.”

 


End file.
